Aug. 5 (Bloomberg) -- Taylor, Bean and Whitaker Mortgage Corp.?s expulsion from the ranks of Federal Housing Administration #lenders may make it harder and more expensive for cash-strapped consumers to finance home purchases.

The FHA, the government mortgage insurer, yesterday suspended Taylor Bean, its third-largest lender, citing possible fraud. It?s ?distinctly possible this is going to be the end of Taylor Bean,? said David Lykken, managing #partner at consultant Mortgage Banking Solutions in Austin, Texas.

FHA mortgages represent about half of all new loans for home purchases, up from about 10 percent at the start of 2008, as borrowers with low down payments or poor credit get turned down for other financing, according to a Bank of America Corp. report last month. Taylor Bean, based in Ocala, Florida, does business across the U.S. through loan brokers and other #lenders It ranked 12th among U.S. mortgage originators in the first half of this year with $17 billion of loans, or 1.7 percent of the total, according to industry newsletter Inside Mortgage Finance.

If closely held Taylor Bean goes out of business, mortgage rates may rise as #lenders face less competition, said Michael Moskowitz, president of the New York-based home lender #Equity Now Inc., which last sold a loan to Taylor Bean a year ago.

?It?s just a question of demand and supply,? he said in a telephone interview yesterday. ?If Taylor Bean goes down, it?s a pretty big deal.?

Unresolved Issues

Taylor Bean didn?t submit a required annual financial report and ?misrepresented that there were no unresolved issues with its independent auditor,? the FHA said in a statement. The auditor discovered ?irregular transactions that raised concerns of fraud,? the FHA said. The agency?s decision follows a failed attempt by Taylor Bean to lead an #investor group that would pay $300 million for a controlling stake in Colonial Banc#Group Inc., one of its own #lenders

Mortgage brokers and their clients with applications at Taylor Bean will be hard hit because ?most of the quality shops have stopped dealing with brokers,? Moskowitz said. The number of contracts to buy previously owned homes in the U.S. rose in June for a fifth straight month, climbing 3.6 percent and exceeding economists? forecasts, the National Association of Realtors said.

?A Big Player?

?They?re a big player in Florida and this is bound to have a detrimental effect, especially the loans sitting in their pipeline that haven?t closed,? Valerie Saunders, president of the Tallahassee-based Florida Association of Mortgage Brokers, said in an interview.

Potential homebuyers who are unable to fund loans through Taylor Bean will have to try to switch #lenders, potentially adding time and cost to their purchase, Saunders said. She doesn?t have any buyers seeking mortgages from the company.

The importance of FHA loans to the housing market after retreats by #banks and private mortgage insurers is ?Capital-H huge,? Lykken said. ?It?s so huge it?s not even funny.?

In June, applications for loans backed by the FHA or Department of Veterans Affairs represented 35.9 percent of all submissions for refinancings or home purchases, the highest share since 1990, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. The agency insures mortgages with down payments as low as 3.5 percent, and doesn?t have minimum credit-score requirements.

Less Strict

Taylor Bean has bought FHA mortgages from other #lenders still on probation because they had just signed up with the agency, Lykken said. Few other #lenders will accept those loans, and Taylor Bean is known for being less strict in underwriting both FHA and so-called conventional mortgages, which can be sold to government-support mortgage-finance companies Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, he said.

?I?ve heard it said it?s good that we have Taylor Bean there because no one else will buy these loans,? Lykken said. ?To say they?re a bottom-feeder may be too strong a statement, but that?s how they?re viewed in a lot of cases.?

Brad German, a spokesman for McLean, Virginia-based Freddie Mac, declined to comment. Brian Faith, a spokesman for Fannie Mae, said his Washington-based company hasn?t done business with Taylor Bean ?for some time.?

Agents with the Troubled Asset Relief Program?s special inspector general brought a search warrant to Colonial?s mortgage warehouse-lending division in Orlando, Colonial said yesterday. The company, based in Montgomery, Alabama, didn?t say what the agents were seeking and U.S. officials declined to elaborate. The #bank raised doubt last month about its survival.

Taylor Bean?s proposed investment was intended to help Colonial meet capital requirements for TARP, the $700 billion bailout program for financial firms, and get $550 million in federal aid. The transaction was canceled July 31, and the #bank didn?t receive TARP funds. Colonial spokeswoman Merrie Tolbert declined to comment.

To contact the reporters on this story: David Mildenberg in Charlotte at Show email Jody Shenn in New York at Show email

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